Battle of Port Yokosuka
Background After their defeat at Narita, the surviving members of the Japan Liberation Front retreat to Port Yokosuka hiding in a tanker with liquid Sakuradite. However, with the Britannian Military in pursuit of them, Zero and The Black Knights prepare to use this advantage to capture Cornelia. The Battle The battle begins when Cornelia orders the Portmans into the water to commence the assault on General Katase’s ship. At the same time, Suzaku Kururugi and the other Knightmares move into position to provide covering fire. On the other side of things, Zero already has his Knightmares loaded up into boats to transport them to the battle at a moment’s notice but when Ohgi tries to get Zero to engage, he replies that it just isn’t time to strike and that they need to wait. This shocks Ohgi a little but everyone follows the orders. By this point the Portman Knightmares have arrived at the tanker. The units with Suzaku open fire from the shore and start picking off the JLF soldiers on the ship’s deck, but Suzaku hesitates and does not shoot. Cecile Croomy comes on the comm and reminds Suzaku of his place in hopes of getting him to engage in the battle. However at that moment the JLF forces try to surrender over an open channel. Instead of accepting their surrender, Suzaku is ordered to ignore them and start killing more. The tanker then starts to move out of the port as Katase has decided that pretty much everyone has left him to die. Shortly after that, the Portman’s start boarding the ship just as it passes over the bomb that Lelouch secretly planted before the battle started. As he gives the order to save the JLF, Lelouch also detonates the bomb and completely destroys the tanker and everyone on board. This comes as a shock to both the Black Knights and Cornelia as it looks like the ship self-destructed to keep the Sakuradite out of Britannian hands. The Black Knights use this confusion to their advantage when Lelouch orders everyone to attack Cornelia’s forces head on and try to capture her. With their forces divided and in disarray, the Black Knights are able to quickly crush many of the Britannian Knightmares. Lelouch and Kallen even manage to subdue Cornelia as she did not have adequate time to power up her Gloucester. Just as Lelouch is about to drag Cornelia out of her Knightmare, he notices that Shirley Fenette has followed him and he hesitates long enough for Suzaku to free Cornelia and demolish Lelouch’s Burai. The Guren then jumps in and begins to battle the Lancelot. Lelouch had to eject from his Burai and was knocked unconscious from the act just a few yards from Shirley. She picks up his gun and intends on paying him back for what he did to her father but as she is about to pull the trigger, the mask falls off his face and she realizes that it is Lelouch. Villetta Nu walks over and starts celebrating that she found out who Zero is and Shirley shoots her instead. Shirley then runs off. Lelouch having woken up and realizing that someone must have seen his face has C.C. tell Ohgi to sound a retreat. The Guren and Lancelot fight a little more before Kallen retreats with the rest of the Black Knights. Aftermath This battle changes everything for just about everyone. Shirley was profoundly effected by what she witnessed and Lelouch inevitably uses his Geass on her, figuring that it is better if she had never known him than to go through everything she has been feeling. Furthermore, Villeta also loses her memory from this battle and winds up getting extremely close to Ohgi. That relationship will cause huge problems for her a year later. Finally, one of the most important changes comes from Katase's death as the JLF pretty much died with him. Though the Black Knights fought in many battles that were bigger, this was one of the most important turning points in the war. A short time later, the last remnants of the JLF were absorbed into the Black Knights after Zero helped the Four Holy Swords rescue Kyoshiro Tohdoh from execution.